Abstract

The nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain–like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is a molecular platform that induces caspase-1 activation and subsequent IL-1β maturation, and is implicated in inflammatory diseases; however, little is known about the negative regulation of NLRP3 inflammasome activation. In this article, we identified an E3 ligase, Ariadne homolog 2 (ARIH2), as a posttranslational negative regulator of NLRP3 inflammasome activity in macrophages. ARIH2 interacted with NLRP3 via its NACHT domain (aa 220–575) in the NLRP3 inflammasome complex. In particular, we found that while using mutants of ARIH2 and ubiquitin, the really interesting new gene 2 domain of ARIH2 was required for NLRP3 ubiquitination linked through K48 and K63. Deletion of endogenous ARIH2 using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing inhibited NLRP3 ubiquitination and promoted NLRP3 inflammasome activation, resulting in apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain oligomerization, pro–IL-1β processing, and IL-1β production. Conversely, ARIH2 overexpression promoted NLRP3 ubiquitination and inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Our findings reveal a novel mechanism of ubiquitination-dependent negative regulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome by ARIH2 and highlight ARIH2 as a potential therapeutic target for inflammatory diseases.

Footnotes

This work was supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (to A.K. and M.T.), the Takeda Science Foundation (to M.T.), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology–supported program for the Strategic Foundation at Private Universities (to M.T.), and the Agency for Medical Research and Development-Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (to M.T.).